llamasbailando: Wedding Preparations.

The other days this week...apart from recovering from Volcano climbing!!!...were days to prepare for Marco and Gerti´s wedding. For thoose of you who don´t know..Marco is Jesus´ brother who lives in Germany. They were married civily, but wanted to bring their 3 kids and family here to get married in the church here in Ecuador. This was the main reason for our trip this time...for all the family to be together...family from Ecuador, Germany and Australia!!!

As i mentioned in my first blog, Linda and us seem to follow each other around South America...and yes, she was invited to join in the wedding festivities. So...wednesday she arrived to be part of the family here!!! Whist I climbed Cotocachi on thursday...she hung around enjoying being part of the family!!!

Breaky time...Linda even bought vegemite...YUM!!

The first, and for some the most important, wedding preparation was the making of the chicha!!! What is chica you might ask?! Well...its a type of corn ground, cooked and fermented. Yep...alcoholic corn!!! they think of everything over here!!! This was prepared in the traditional manner here. prepared over the open fire and left to ferment in a ceramic pot in the ground. I took lots of photos of the chicha making process!!

Stage 1 of the chicha.

Sifting the preprared mixture.

Mama Maria´s turn at helping out!!

Chicha preparation...a family affair!!!

Ready to cook.

Bubbling away!!

The chicha pot.

Oooops...noone told me that wire was overhead!!!

Pouring the chicha into the pot...lucky there was another one!!

Chicha ready to ferment.

Covering up the pot.

The chica in its final fermenting spot...yep, in the cuy house!!!

Relaxing after Chicha making!!

Friday morning, Jesus and I were up at 6.30 for our ritual shower in El Dique. We arrived back up at the house to find the pig (which was to be dinner for the wedding!!) had been killed. The poor thing had been fattened and prepared for this destiny!!! They paid a man and his wife to come and prepare the pig in this traditional manner...all done by hand. Now-a-days they take to pig to a place to be killed and cut up by

machine. I was speaking to the man, and he told me that he was taught from a kid to prepare the pig in this manner...a "dying art form" these days!!! After it is killed, the pig is burnt with a gas torch to burn off all the hair. The blackened skin is scraped off to reveal a pink pig!!! We all looked on in fascination...Jesus was "dreaming" of the fritada to follow tomorrow!!!

Watching on as the poor pig is torched!!

The lady starting to scrape away the burnt skin.

Close up to the action.

Even closer up to the action!!

The burnt skin being scraped away!!

Being carried to a bench to clean the other side.

Team effort!!

Time for the tummy.

Even the tail was scraped down!!!

Then...time to cut the pig up...not the best sight for the faint hearted...or the vegetarian!!! But...as "official reporter and photographer"!!! I had to take lots of photos...hee hee. I will share the gory details with you all!!! First a big cut was made down the middle...then time to take out all the innids!!! MMM!!! The tounge, the heart, the liver, the stomach....and then the poor pigs boy bits, which were proudly hung over the nearby tree branch!!! All the bits are cooked and eaten in some manner here...so everything was washed and cleaned out!! Vegetarians might want to skip over this bit...hee hee!!

A cut down the middle...ouch!!!

Right up to the chinny chin chin!!

And down to the tail!!

Time to take out the innids!!

All in to the awaiting bucket!!

Mama Maria keeping a watch over the process!!

Innids!!

Washing out the body!!

The poor pig´s pride and joy hanging over the tree branch!!

The "empty pig was then carried up to the house to be hung up by his nose to drain. Meanwhile, the man skinned it and then cut it up in to pieces. All that was left was the head hanging!!!

A man´s job...carrying the pig up to the house.

"Ready to be hung up by my nose"!!

Ready, steady and up!!!

Ready to be cut up...ouch!!!

Consuela with the poor pigs feet...pigs trotter soup anyone?!!

A trotterless pig!!

A skinless pig!!

Pig skin!!

Mama Maria keeping a watchful eye over her pig!!

Only the poor pig´s head left hanging!!

Poor pig being cut up into bite sized pieces!!

Washing out the intestines!!

Scraping out the intestines!!

Liver and other bits and pieces!!

"Tradition" here has it that the person who takes down the pigs head has to shout a crate of beer!! A friend of Marco´s was tricked in to taking it down...hee hee!! Lucky for him a crate of beer costs only $9.

Everyone (except me!!) was excited to have a pre-breakfast treat of pig skin grilled over an open fire. EEEK!!!

Grilled pig skin anyone!!

Mmmm...yummy!!

Jesus...just being Jesus!!

After this...time for a real breakfast....home made bread with vegemite...yep, Linda bought a tube with her!!! Linda and I even sang the vegemite song!! They all laughed at us hee hee!! We let everyone try it...they have no idea of whats good for them!!! YUK...they all said!! Only one sister, Lidia, liked it spread on her grilled pig skin!!! Vegemite Ecuadorian style!! Actually...the cats liked it too!!

After breaky, we headed off to a nearby town, Atun Taqui, to do some wedding shopping. It was also our niece Naomi´s 8th birthday on the day of the wedding...so I told her we would buy her some new shoes to go with her pretty wedding dress.

I love the markets here...full of colour and great photo opportunities. Inside...meat hanging up, chickens piled up on benches in the open air...no such thing as refrigeration or hygene!!! Cheese piled up on benches, food being prepared...whole pigs ready to be cut and and eaten...yummy!!! Colourful fruit and vegies in another area, and clothes in the plaza outside. Linda and I hung around Atun Taqui a bit longer to take more market photo shots!!! I will share some of them with you.

Hygene plus!!

Pigs head anyone?!

Chorus of pigs head!!

Pigs trotters for sale!!

Your local butcher.

Another photo!!

The meat stall.

Hmmm.what will i buy today?!

"That piece of meat hanging there please"!!

"A bag of chickens feet please".

Mmmm...cooking fat anyone!!

Pig for lunch...or breaky!!

The fruit stall.

Market view.

Shelled peas or lima beans for $1 a scoop.

Corn for $1 a scoop.

More corn anyone?.

Beans or lentils for $1 a scoop!!

A happy chappy!!

A local selling her bit of corn...yep $1 a scoop!!

A local selling her few tomatoes!!

Happy Mr corn man!!

Shelling peas.

For desert..."spumilla"...like meringue mixture!!

Cheese please!!

Breaky time.

Spot Linda in the market...hint...she is not the one selling bananas!!!

Yep...she is the one buying a pineapple!!!

We also went in serch of a bottle shop to buy some vino to enjoy...to celebrate being in Ecuador together. We asked some police standing on the corner if they knew where a bottle shop was!! They actually gave us correct directions...more often than not you get sent in the oppposite direction here!!! Then, it was time to head home. As we got off the bus and started to walk home...our local taxi driver Don Vincente pulled over and offered us a lift. I feel like part of the furniture here now!!!

In the afternoon I had to take Mama Maria to buy a new stove top. Her old one wasn´t working properly...and Jesus made a table out of it...teasing her that it didn´t work, but with the intention of buying her a new one!!! As we needed it for tomorrow, we called upon Don Vincente to take us to his daughters business nearby. Linda and I just laughed as the car just pulled over on the side of the busy 6-lane Panamerican Highway where the workshop was. After a bit of typical Latino bargaining...a new stovetop bought!!!

Back home...time to make some chocky biscuit balls for tomorrow. Preparation a-la-Ecuadorian-style. Biscuits crushed with a rolling pin in their plastic bag and the tin of condensed milk opened with a knife!!! But...they turned out yummy. Had nieces helping with the rolling process!!!

The German contingent were busy making traditional German cakes for the wedding. Tonight was strudle-making!!!